Property design queen Tina Jesson claims business travel is not all glamour
after staying in a hotel which she believes redefines the word ‘budget’.
“We were doing some work in a Basingstoke shopping centre, designing room sets
from accessories in the stores,” she says. “The centre was putting us up in
a hotel and it was something else. They gave us a ‘dry breakfast’, which
consisted of a cardboard container with cereal, a cereal bar and some milk.
That’s budget for you. We had to go to the shopping centre to get a proper
breakfast – just some hot toast and a hot drink. The rest of the hotel
wasn’t any better; it was one of those with the shower gel securely attached
to the wall so you can’t steal it. But I won’t name names!”
Jesson, 43, is the founder and managing director of homestagers.co.uk,
which specialises in dressing houses to make them more appealing to
potential buyers. She founded the company in 2001 and now has a team of six
people at the head office in Derbyshire and nine design consultants. It
makes undisclosed profits. Jesson has recently relocated to Indiana in the
US and often travels across the Atlantic between her office and her new
home. She also travels up and down the UK and occasionally abroad on
business.
How do you get around in England?
I’m constantly up and down the M1. I do quite a lot of press and TV shows on
how to survive the property crisis. We also specialise in selling empty
properties, so have been busy even in the current slump. I’ll use whatever
hire cars I can get my hands on. I have to be honest and say that a car
isn't important to me. As long as it’s big enough to put some household
furniture in, which we will use to improve a property, then I’m happy.
Do you use the train?
I do because if you’re going into London, it can often be the best option. I
recently had to go to the American embassy to renew my visa and the actor
John Hurt was also in the queue, which was a bit of a thrill. In fact, I
always seem to see celebrities when I come to London, which is a bit of a
cliché, but in my case it’s true. We were trying to park a van in London
when we had too much stuff for the train and Jonathan Ross crossed the road
in some crocodile cowboy boots – only he could get away with wearing those.
Do you find the trains expensive?
Not half. When I rang to book a ticket to London at a particular time, I
complained that it was expensive and the woman on the other end of the phone
said ‘your company can pay, can’t it?’. I said ‘yes, but it’s my company’.
It does make you watch your pennies. Now, I’ll try not to travel on the
train before 11am, which can be a bit limiting, but it certainly saves on
the costs.
What about flying in the UK?
Sometimes if I’m going on a TV programme, the station will fly me to the
location. I went to Glasgow on bmi and when I arrived late on a Sunday night
I expected there would be someone waiting with a name board, but of course
there wasn’t. Thankfully, I was able to get hold of someone who told me to
go across to the car park. As a woman in a strange city at that time of
night, I didn’t feel very comfortable, but I was met by a lady taxi driver,
which relaxed me. However, she then asked me if she knew where the hotel was
because she didn’t know it and also didn’t have a satellite navigation
system with her! Amazingly, I had one in my bag and we had to use that. She
said she wished all her clients were like me; I just quietly thought she was
in the wrong job.
What’s the strangest trip you’ve been on?
